Lights Out, Everybody: Mystery and Horror during the Golden Age of Radio

For more than a decade, Steve Darnall has had the opportunity to share his twin fascinations for American history and popular culture as the host of Those Were the Days and the publisher of Nostalgia Digest. During this time, he’s had the chance to speak to thousands of radio fans across the country.

Steve discovered the Golden Age of Radio at age 12, when his father Jack turned the dial to Chuck Schaden’s Those Were the Days and out came the sounds of Fibber McGee and Molly. Thus began a relationship with the early days of radio that continues to this day.

His presentation, Lights Out, Everybody: Mystery and Horror During the Golden Age of Radio, uses sound clips from some of radio’s best known mystery and horror programs (including Escape, Inner Sanctum and Lights Out) to illustrate how radio could truly be a “Theater of the mind” and use music, voices and sounds to create indelible — and often frightening — “pictures.”

This event is free and open to all ages. No registration is required. It is sponsored by the Friends of the Library.

For additional information, please contact Chelsea at chelsear@dkpl.org or at (815) 756-9568 ext. 1700.